Tag: innovation

Toyota Builds Their Own Smart City

joshuaherrig1 Comment

Post by Joshua Herrig, UNI : jlh2208

Article: Toyota just started building a 175-acre smart city at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. Photos offer a glimpse of what the ‘Woven City’ will look like. by Katie Warren

Sustainability Problem(s): As we have seen in class, implementing new technologies into existing cities can prove difficult due to a host of problems, from cultural to financial to bureaucratic. The city itself will also tackle sustainable problems of energy, construction, and transportation amongst others.

Solution: By building their own smart city from the ground up, Toyota will be able to use the city as a lab and test bed for new technologies and will be able to bypass common hurdles of implementation.

The energy for Woven City city will come from a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and solar paneled roofs.

Transportation will have three types of roads that will be separated from each other: one for pedestrians, one for bicycles and one for cars. There will be testing of various sizes and types of electric, self driving vehicles. Drones will deliver goods to businesses.

Construction will be done with sustainably forested wood.

It is being built over what was once a Toyota car factory. Construction has begun and 350 people will move into the 175-acre site including families, inventors and senior citizens.

A concise video on the city can be seen here.

Some hurdles of a new city city run by one corporation: though I love the idea of building a new city from scratch, I also know that history is littered with failed utopias, as explored by the first season of the NICE TRY! podcast. There will be many issues with privacy and laws. Will everyone be tracked 24/7? What happens if a crime is committed in this city? There could be problems of monopoly and competition. What if another company comes up with a better new technology that competes with a Toyota product? Will they ban it from this city? I also think about project’s like Norman Foster’s design of Masdar City in the UAE, which looks really great and is intended to be a sustainable city of the future, but doesn’t seem to have many people actually living in it and has been called a “gimmick.” Maybe I’m preemptively judging it though.

Organizational Stakeholders include Toyota, of course, Toyota’s employees, and the citizens of the new city. Though they are never mentioned, I’m assuming the Federal government of Japan must approve the site. Another stakeholder is the architecture firm Bjark Ingels, who are the major designers of the city.

Steps for Deployment: 1. Design the city 2. Build the city 3. Run the city and 4. Have functioning citizens living and working in the city.

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Smart Package Locker System

Mu HuangLeave a comment

Sustainability Issues

As e-commerce becomes interestingly popular among the younger population, receiving packages in an easier and safer way also becomes a concern. The traditional delivery method of leaving packages on doorsteps for single-family homes or handing them to the doorman at apartment buildings are not only vulnerable to theft but also time-consuming to process – an unreliable delivery method during predominate e-commerce era when a household receives multiple packages a day. A smart package locker system that could be configured to adapt the setting of residential/ commercial areas is expected to significantly improve package- receiving experiences. This technology has been implemented by Amazon in some neighborhoods and areas (Amazon Locker) but could be expanded to more residential/ commercial buildings potentially.

Technology: Smart Locker System 

  • Install smart locker system in apartment/commercial buildings, residential areas based on estimated service population size and grant delivery carriers (UPS, USPS, FedEx, HDL) access to the locker.
  • Instead of going door-by-door to leave packages on the doorsteps or handing them to the doorman, delivery staff place packages inside the smart locker and input the recipient’s information in the locker by scanning the shipping label.
  • Once a package has been placed in a locker, an automated text message will be sent by the locker system to the package’s intended recipient with a barcode or PIN number.
  • To retrieve the package, the recipient simply scan the barcode he or she received earlier or input the PIN number at the smart locker
  • The smart locker system could also be utilized to drop-off out-going packages.

Stakeholders

  • Postal carriers (UPS, USPS, FedEx, HDL, etc.)
  • Property owners of residential/commercial buildings
  • Residents
  • Smart locker system provider

Deployment 

  • Property owners/managers conduct a survey of building users and residents to estimate to estimate size of locker needed
  • Contact locker provider to configure and install smart locker system in the building
  • Grant delivery carriers access to the smart locker and provide them with proper training

Source

http://www.southwestsolutions.com/equipment/package-tracking-lockers-mail-delivery-distribution-locker-audit-trail#view-brochures

http://signifi.com/hardware-solutions/smartlocker/

UNI: MH3730

Turn Recycled Plastic into 3D Printing Filament

alexandravamanuLeave a comment

Sustainable Problem: Waste

As we’ve established, humans produce a lot of trash – apparently of the more than 300m tons of plastic produced globally every year, one refuse truck’s worth ends up in our waters, landfills and streets every minute.

Technology:

  • Reflow converts recyclable plastic into 3D printing filament using open source technology.
  • Reflow filament is made from recycled PET bottles collected in developing regions, and revenues from the filament go back to the waste collectors who gather these bottles, which the company claims can increase their income by up to 20 times.
  • The market for 3D printing filament – the majority of which is made from virgin plastic – is growing rapidly. A recent report predicted the 3D printing materials market will grow by nearly 266% in the next five years.
  • 3D printing seems to be offering the developing world is employment – there are an estimated 15 million people globally who currently make their living from waste picking

Stakeholders:

  • Reflow
  • Waste Collection Companies
  • Artists
  • Designers
  • Various Printing Companies

Deployment/Implementation:

  • set up a production facility at a local rubbish dump, where waste pickers convert high-density polyethylene (HPDE) – mostly used for plastic bottles – into 3D printing filament to eventually be sold to 3D printing companies.
  • Marketing campaign
  • Introduce into different societies at different levels due to so many variations

Different uses of recycled plastics in 3D Printing!

3D Plastics 3

Joshua Harker is an American artist and pioneer in 3D printed art and sculpture whose work has appeared in countless galleries, collections, publications and platforms worldwide, making him perhaps the most acclaimed 3D artist alive today. His work pushes the limits of form and dimensions to share his unique vision. He incorporates digital tools, software, technology as well as traditional mediums into his work to create art that is fresh, cutting edge and timeless.

3D Plastics 4

 

Deze Straver is an Amsterdam based graphic designer who does not enjoy writing about himself but does love to work with digital imagery, visual language, shapes and movement. His recent works explores the human form in eerie shape shifting fashion.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/01/sustainable-technology-2016-climate-change-environment

https://www.ptonline.com/blog/post/startup-turns-recycled-plastic-into-3d-printing-filament-

http://reflowfilament.com/gallery.html

Comments to greentechsmartcities: It is fascinating what some people can do with garbage and plastic waste. The art collective Luzinterruptus has a history of tackling political and social issues in Europe. The “Labyrinth of Plastic Waste” is but one example. “We were looking to demonstrate, in a poetic manner, the amount of plastic waste that is consumed daily,” Luzinterruptus explained in a statement. “In addition to focusing attention on the big business of bottling water, which leads to very serious problems in developing countries, whose citizens have watched as their aquifers have been privatized with impunity for the exclusive enrichment of large business owners and ruling classes without scruples.”

https://vimeo.com/100256751

UNI:  AV2698

 

Plastic Reuse for Practical Use

Dominic Bell5 Comments

1) Waste & Civic Engagement: 

Plastics and other waste are discarded in developed countries where every convenient because little value is seen in them after they have served their purpose. This causes pollution of the oceans, streets filled with waste, and little social change. The Hamilton Perkins Collection has come up with a way to work with developing countries to convert plastic waste around the world into valuable products by adding value.

2) Technology:

  • Canvas is made out of recycled bottles and recycled vinyl billboards to produce bags
  • The plastics are recovered from Haiti by community members in developing countries and recycling centers clean and crush the plastic
  • The business estimates that compared to normal duffel bags, 15,000 pounds of CO2 is saved in emissions

3) Stakeholders:

  • Residents in developing countries
  • Retail Businesses
  • Customers valuing causes

4) Deployment: 

  • Generate pipelines for gathering plastics
  • Partner with other developing countries to increase scale of production
  • Partner with store front businesses to diversify the market

5) Student Post:

“The roads are made from plastic soda bottles which allows the DOT in Texas so save almost $700,000 in traditional repair. With this model they found a way to save money in repairs and also take plastics out of landfills.”

https://makeasmartcity.com/2017/11/16/drb2171-2/comment-page-1/#comment-1415

Source:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3061905/these-pretty-travel-bags-are-made-from-recycled-plastic-bottles-and-billboards

Dominic Bell (dlb2189)

50-Qubit Quantum Computer

phc2120Leave a comment

IBM Raises the Bar with a 50-Qubit Quantum Computer

IBM has developed a quantum computer that can handle 50 qubits per second. The computer IBM developed is still unstable, only preserving its state for 90 microseconds.

Quantum-Computer-06-goog

 

Sustainability Issue:

Category: Energy

The world generates 2.5 exabytes of data every day [0]. With the explosion of data being generated and preserved combined with billions of devices connecting to the internet, an issue the world will face is the ability to power all the machines and devices on a modern world.  Rolf Landauer calculated and demonstrated that each bit operation of a computer requires a minimum amount of energy.  With the amount of data being generated and saved, researchers are predicting the world will encounter energy issues to power all of our devices by 2040[1]. The world’s fastest computer processes 33 Petaflops per second, which consumes 17.8 megawatts[2].

  • energy requirements of computers and devices will outpace ‘reasonable’ supply
  • volume of data requiring more processing time
Technology Solution:

Traditional computers store information in the form of a 1 or 0.  As a result, traditional computers require energy and generate vast amounts of heat to perform complex calculations and operations.  IBM’s development of a 50 -qubit quantum computer is 100 million times faster and consumes less energy than traditional computers.   Quantum computers are able to store information as 1 and 0 simultaneously, vis-a-vis a feature of quantum mechanics known as superposition. The key feature of quantum computers is they can perform complicated calculations beyond the reaches of today’s computer while consuming less energy.  Today’s computers can take days and weeks to calculate factors with hundreds and thousands of digits, which consumes vast amounts of energy.  With IBM’s 50- qubit quantum computer, factors with 555 digits can be calculated within seconds.

Qb_bits

  • Revolutionize  computer architecture
  • Development in new materials
  • Increase encryption for devices / communication networks / etc..
  • Improvement in artificial intelligence (particularly deep learning)
  • Climate models can be more complex

QbBits

 

 

qb_explain

Stakeholders:
  • Inventors: IBM, Google, Facebook, Intel, Rigetti, etc..
  • Consumers: change the world
  • Energy companies: utilities will see lower demand as servers and server farms consume less energy
  • Telecommunication / internet companies: cryptography will be improved dramatically.
  • Researchers / scientists / physicists / climate scientists / etc.. – complex calculations will be able to be performed faster
Next steps:
  • Ongoing research – develop a stable state system (companies listed below)
  • Continue funding – Intel, IBM, Google, Facebook, Rigetti, & universities
  • IBM QX – 20 qubit cloud computing system continue to beta testing.  March 2017 rolled out python API and SDK.
  • Once stable state system is developed then likely to be deployed in large institutions  (governments/ research centers / data farms/ etc.)

Sources: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609451/ibm-raises-the-bar-with-a-50-qubit-quantum-computer/

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/09/05/how-quantum-computers-will-revolutionize-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-and-big-data/#6633a79e5609

[1] http://www.wired.co.uk/article/quantum-computing-explained

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/20/11975356/chinese-supercomputer-worlds-fastes-taihulight

Comments Other Posts:

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/35950343/posts/1666372559

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/35950343/posts/1667215472

Nature-inspired water collection system

Timothy Wiranata1 Comment

AquaWeb+inspirationsystem-aquaweb

  1. Sustainability Problem: In the next few decades, approximately 9 billion people will live in this planet, concentrating in urban areas. The current growth rate of food production won’t be enough to feed the mouths of everyone. Hence, a sustainable local food production solution will be in demand. Mimicking the way nature works, NexLoop created a water collection system to support urban sustainable agriculture.
  2. The AquaWeb can help urban local food producers collect, filter, store and distribute atmospheric moisture with a modular, all-in-one water sourcing and management system. Other features are as follows:
    • Harnesses freely available rain and fog
    • Distribute water using passive strategies to urban farms
    • Resilient to disturbances
    • Design and inspiration from cribellate orb weaver spider, drought-tolerant plants, and Jersey cow mushroom

Sources:

Nature-inspired water collection system wins $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize® – Biomimicry Institute

https://biomimicry.org/roh2017winner/

NexLoop | Home

http://www.nexloop.us/

  1. Stakeholders:
    • Citizens around the world
    • Urban farms
    • Agriculture industry
    • Building contractors and architects
    • Groceries and supermarkets
  2. Next steps:
    • Do a feasibility study and engage with stakeholders to improve relations
    • Reach an agreement on costs and economic outlook
    • Initiate pilot-scale project through government funding

 

By: Timothy Wiranata

UNI: tw2618

 

Comment on The benefits of waste-to-energy technologies:

“A very interesting technology! However, I am curious on what will be done after the methane is captured. There will still be the liquid waste water right? Will it be used for other applications?”

Smart Fabrics – no wires or batteries

phc21204 Comments

 

Sustainability Problem: Real time data on workers, reduce injuries

For first responders information on victims and types of injuries are vital in order to determine the necessary procedures to perform.  As a result, speed is vital and decisions are made in seconds.  Information is not always readily available to first reconsiders  when they arrive to an emergency scene. Every year, thousand of people are misdiagnoses and/or treated incorrectly due to lack of information on the injury and/or the victim’s medical history.

Most smart fabrics are not sustainable because they require electronics and  batteries.

 

Sustainable Technology: Smart fabric

  • Researchers at the University of Washington developed a smart fabrics that holds magnetize text that can store small amounts of data readable by a magnetometer.
  • The fabric can interact with storage devices without the need for onboard electronics or batteries.
  • Individual’s emergency medical history can be stored on the fabric.
  • First responders can scan a victim’s clothing to gather vital statistics – e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, allergies, etc.
  • This fabric is more sustainable since it doesn’t require any electronics and / or batteries.
  • Fabric maintains magnetic field after washing, drying, and ironing.
  • Fabric can be encoded with security information to access secure locations (e.g., home, office building, etc.. )

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609264/your-next-password-may-be-stored-in-your-shirt-cuff/

Organizational Stakeholders that Will Use the Technology:

  • Researchers at U. of Washington (Justin Chan, graduate student)
  • Prof. Shyam Gollakota, U. of Washington
  • U. of Washington Networks and Mobile System Lab

First 3 Steps in Deploying the Technology:

  • Continue testing fabric and weather proof
  • Increase longevity of magnetic field (declines over the course of a week)
  • Increase data storage capacity.

 

Comments:

The technology mentioned below can be used in natural gas / oil pipelines to monitor leaks. Every year, there are thousand of leaks in gas / oil pipelines. The majority of the leaks go undiscovered for days and/or weeks before discovered.

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/35950343/posts/1650267701

Solar-powered Vertical City is a self-sustaining, green-infused tower planted into the ocean floor

Timothy Wiranata1 Comment

  1. Sustainability Problem: With rising sea levels and the ever-increasing population growth, alternative living solutions are in dire need. Italian architect Luca Curci has just unveiled a design that envisions a soaring zero-energy tower infused with greenery on each level that will be planted into the sea floor, resulting in what could be the future of self-contained architecture.
  2. The Vertical City tower is designed to reach a height of 2,460 feet with 180 floors. The tower will be layered with a membrane of photovoltaic glass to ensure there is sufficient energy for the entire building. Other features are as follows:
    • 190,000 square feet of mixed-use floor surface
    • Natural lighting due to perforated slots throughout the exterior
    • 66,000 feet of outdoor green space
    • Access possible through water, land or air

Sources:

Solar Vertical City is a self-contained, green-infused tower planted into the ocean floor| Inhabitat – Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building

https://inhabitat.com/luca-curci-envisions-a-living-vertical-city-powered-by-the-sun/

Vertical City | Luca Curci Achitects

http://www.lucacurci.com/portfolio/vertical-city.html

  1. Stakeholders:
    • Citizens around the world
    • The Gulf countries
    • Global and Local government
    • Building contractors and architects
    • Engineers
  2. Next steps:
    • Do a feasibility study and engage with stakeholders to improve relations
    • Reach an agreement on costs and economic outlook
    • Initiate the project or decrease scale of project (if denied by government)

 

By: Timothy Wiranata

UNI: tw2618

Comment on OLLI – the self-driving electric mini bus:

“A very innovative idea! However, my concern is, how would Olli cater to many different passengers’ destinations? Will it be able to find the most optimal route to drop each passenger (like Via)? Or will it drop the passengers one by one according to when they stepped into the bus?”

 

Sensor-Packed Pedestrian Crossing

alexandravamanu1 Comment

Crossing1Crossing2

Sustainable Problem: Civic Engagement, Safety

Sensor-packed pedestrian crossing is fit for a modern city

Technology:

  • A prototype LED crossing uses sensors to respond to the movement of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians
  • “We’ve been designing a pedestrian crossing for the 21st century,” says Usman Haque, Umbrellium‘s founding partner. “Crossings that you know were designed in the 1950s, when there was a different type of city and interaction.”
  • This smart crossing doesn’t just look more modern than the 60 years old versions; it uses machine learning to make the crossings safer. Figures from the Transport Research Laboratory show that 7,000 incidents happen on them each year in the UK.
  • The actual crossing doesn’t exist until it’s safe for you to cross – then LED patterns appear to direct people and stop cars.
  • The machines could also learn to project the crossing at a slightly different orientation if, for instance, everyone makes a beeline for a certain shop after a school days.

Stakeholders:

  • Umbrellium
  • Insurance Firm – Direct Line
  • Cities

Deployment/Implementation:

  • The project is still some way from completion.
  • To speed up the process, the code behind it is being made open source.
  • Deploy when figure logistics of implementation are figured out
  • Have multiple detection systems, to be fail safe such as version that has a pressure sensor which detects where footsteps are.

Sources:  http://www.wired.co.uk/article/digital-pedestrian-crossing-technology-machine-learning-safety

Comments to: World’s First and Largest Vacuum Air Cleaner #BT2443

The results confirm that the tower captures and removes up to 70% of the ingested PM10 and up to 50% of the ingested PM2.5. For a tower in an open field in calm weather, this provides PM10 reductions up to 45% and PM2.5 reductions up to 25% in a circle with diameter of more than 20 m around the tower. When the tower is applied in semi-enclosed or enclosed courtyards, the beneficial effects can be much larger. These statistics are astounding to me and these towers can help many people in very polluted areas.

UNI:  AV2698

TIDAL ENERGY

alexandravamanuLeave a comment

tidal 4

Tidal power or tidal energy is a form of hydro-power that converts the energy obtained from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity. Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than the wind and the sun.

Sustainable Problem: Energy

Technology

Tidal power or tidal energy is a form of hydrophone that converts the energy obtained from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity. Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than the wind and the sun.

  • Potential: Worldwide potential for wave and tidal power is enormous, however, local geography greatly influences the electricity generation potential of each technology. Wave energy resources are best between 30º and 60º latitude in both hemispheres, and the potential tends to be the greatest on western coasts.

tidal2

  • One type uses floats, buoys, or pitching devices to generate electricity using the rise and fall of ocean swells to drive hydraulic pumps.
  • A second type uses oscillating water column (OWC) devices to generate electricity at the shore using the rise and fall of water within a cylindrical shaft. The rising water drives air out of the top of the shaft, powering an air-driven turbine.
  • Third, a tapered channel, or over topping device can be located either on or offshore.

tidal1

Stakeholder:

  • Smart Growth Companies
  • Institutions or Companies that use energy
  • Utility Companies

Deployment/Implementation

  • Develop technology fully and attract investors
  • Make technology most efficient
  • Implement into society at different levels
  • Marketing Campaign

http://www.rnp.org/node/wave-tidal-energy-technology

UNI: AV2698

Comments to Wakati : Keep food fresh using solar power by RS3686 by AV2698 :

Unlike a refrigerator, the Wakati does not control temperature and, therefore, cannot store fruit and veg for long-term periods. Wakati have shown that a one or two-day shelf-life in a hot climate can be increased to 10 days. In developing countries this can be significant because some food will not go to waste and some companies can even profit.